In which the pond gives two cheers for the minuscules ...

The pond is off this morning to attend to some urgent climate science business, namely hail damage to the car …

We keed, we keed, it was a weather event, it's just that the pond has hung around these parts for well over twenty years and never seen anything like it …

Not to worry, even if the pond happened to be around this morning, it would have trouble keeping up with all the mayhem at reptile central …with every day a new celebration of dinkum true blue clean Oz coal, oi ...

It's hard to work out who's more frantic … the Nationals, with marriage morrows, or Gladys, or SloMo, or the reptiles … and Barners, oh poor poor Barners ...

Barners blathered on about how he was elected deputy PM by the Australian people, and how he was entitled thanks to the Australian people, seeming to forget that he was actually elected to the seat of New England, and everything else came from his colleagues, including his elevation and his sacking…(here)

Some thought he sounded unhinged, but isn't that just the usual way to talk about Barners?

It's getting to be like cable TV, with barking mad breaking news breaking every nanosecond or so … and all filled with doom and gloom and despair, and oh won't someone think of precious coal …

Could it get any worse? Well the Bolter's bolting …

… so there's some good news …but until the Bolter completely bolts, a half-arsed bolt only produces a faint smile …

Still, there was some other good media news, and the pond almost missed it.

Of course we could have dedicated this flashback day to catching up on the Caterist explaining why a politician charged with corruption is worth supporting, but this was the piece that caught the pond's eye and it deserves to be out in the sunshine with the Bolter …

Miller? That rings a bell. Does it have something to do with Chaucer?

With him ther was dwellinge a povre scoler, 
Had learned Western Civiliaation courses, but al his fantasy 
Was turned for to lerne climate science denialism, 
And coude a certeyn of conclusions 
To demen by interrogations, 
If that men axed him in certein houres, 
Whan that men sholde have droghte or ells shores or car-shattering hail, 
Or if men axed him what sholde befall 
Of every thing, I may nat rekene hem alle.

No probably not, but still that talk of trolls sounded inviting, and so the pond jumped in …

Oh the pond gets it now. It's actually a shriek, a howl of pain …which means it must be working, and so the campaigners should take heart and keep it up and perhaps even crank it up a little more.

Not everybody reacted the way that Miller possibly hoped they'd respond to his Miller's tale, with deep love of reptiles and hatred of anonymity …

Well yes Stan, yes indeed …

Everybody knows that Sky decided that after 6 pm it would follow the US Fox model and let every loon under the sun stroll out at night to shout at clouds, as if that business model was performing some sort of social good for the country … when we all know the reality in the States …

Note the date on that one - 2017. There's more up to date TT here, but what's changed in the interim? 

Here's the thing. If corporations won't act responsibly, but instead want to peddle climate science denialism, a love of coal and assorted far right ratbag points of view, sensible people might want to strike back … and they might also want to avoid having the wrath of News Corporation brought down on them …

Of course it's not just individuals that they attack. Each day is littered with assaults on the ABC, ABC staff, Nine's papers and staff, politicians, and other people they don't like … and if they can't think of a reason for why they hate someone, they'll frequently get a columnist to make one up …

And if anybody dares to say boo back, it's all sobs and cry-baby tears … and anybody who calls the after 6 mob, trusted thought leaders needs to think about new definitions for 'thought' and 'leader'...

Yep, it must be working.

Australia's news brands are highly visible and open to scrutiny daily? 

Not in Murdoch la la land, behind the paywall, yet with politicians paying homage, and writing columns and expressing views that are only available to the mug punters who stump up a subscription fee to access Pravda down under …

Any column by a politician should immediately appear on their web site and be made available to their voters for free … so that if the voters don't like what the politicians are saying, they can seek out another professional politician and vote for him or her in the hope that the pollie might be more tailored to their tastes …

But all this has been said many times before … remember the Graudian on News Corp back in September 2018?

If Miller thinks that any sensible person trusts the reptiles, he's more delusional than your average conspiracy theorist …

The pond will concede one thing. 

News Corporation has made laughs of the Dr. Strangelove kind a daily event …and that's why Miller's shrieks and howls are music to the ears …

Surely we are better?

Has Miller ever read the lizard Oz? How could he ask such a silly question, how could he make such a stupid proposition. If he ever sat down and read the tabloid drivel and the broadsheet distortions, omissions, delusions and collusions, he'd probably send a little money Sleeping Giants way ...

Here's the thing. If it's only a few tweets, of no consequence and without impact, done by a half dozen loons, a minuscule mob, why did Miller waste all this precious space?

It's a sure sign the minuscules were actually doing enough damage for him to wail, howl, shriek, jump up and down, and do the time warp again ...

Well speaking of time warps, the pond hopes that there simply won't be a sixtieth anniversary for the tree killer edition, and that Sky and Foxtel in general keep on spiralling down until they reach the status of an Alex Jones …

Sure it'll mean First Dog will have to look for other cartoon fodder ...

Sure it will mean there will be no more Major Mitchell, and both First Dog and the pond will have to look elsewhere for entertainment.

But what a small price to pay … and anyway, there'll always be the memories, with First Dog remembering here ...

Oh yes, it's music to the ears. Roll on the next P and L … last year's is summarised here with hot links… and what a challenge for the minuscules to make their mark this year ...

Why even their own cartoonist is laughing at reptile obsessions and the coalition …